Fires, Liars and Frequent Fliers
by crookedview
Summary: At night, our survivors discuss their lives before the crash... Except they all find themselves lying about what they had. PLEASE R&R! Chapter 2: Shannon plus Boone equals bickering. Jack plus Dad equals hallucinations...?
1. Default Chapter

The fire burned brightly through the deep night. Sparks floated up into the velvety sky.

They had gotten used to the smoky scent; they built fires every night. Sometimes they would forget to continue whatever conversation they were having and stare, hypnotized, into the flames. It was comforting to watch the twisting arms of red and yellow. There were always thick tree branches nearby, ready to refuel their light source, their heat source. And all through the night, the fire would be there.

It made Hurley want a bag of marshmallows really bad.

He looked around at everyone gathered around this fire. There were about ten people. Of course, he wasn't very good with names, but those he knew were Kate, Claire, Boone and the Korean lady… what _was_ her name? Sun. What was she doing here? Wasn't she always with her husband? He'd seen how possessive he was, and it made Hurley angry. Not that he'd ever done anything to stop the Korean guy. It wasn't his business. Besides, who would listen to him, right? He looked around aimlessly for the Korean guy, but he wasn't at any of the neighboring campfires. Whatever.

He saw that Kate and Claire, who were directly across from him, were looking at him expectantly.

"Huh?" he said dumbly.

"I said where did you live before?" Claire repeated, smiling from under her floppy beach hat. She probably thought he was stupid and fat but surprisingly lovable, Hurley reflected gloomily. The whole island did. They saw him coming and said to themselves, 'Oh look, it's Free Willy the friendly whale!' You'd think after almost a month, he would start to be showing visible signs of weight loss. Nope. Must be the boar.

"Uh, I lived in the outskirts of LA." He answered. "With my…" He had begun to say 'parents' but something stopped him. They were on a deserted island, weren't they? How would they find out if he jazzed up his life a little? That is, until they were rescued, of course, and when that happened… well, Hurley wouldn't care.

"…with my girlfriend." He said with a grin that he hoped was convincing. It must be, he thought. The others were looking at him, interested.

"Yeah." He continued. "She's a first grade teacher. Really one of the nicest people I've ever met. I guess you have to be to teach little kids. Every kid wanted her to be their teacher. She's always smiling at someone." He started to ease into his lie smoothly. "Anyway in the summer we'd go to Florida. We did it every year since we met four years ago. First we were just friends. For a while, actually. I went to Sydney to visit my grandma. When I got back to the States, I was going to propose to her. She really wanted kids. My mom was getting excited, 'cause she knew I was going to ask her…"

He trailed away, and drew in the sand with his finger. The others around the fire thought that this awkward pause was because he was thinking about his girlfriend sadly. But Hurley had stopped because he'd just realized that he had unconciously been describing the story of his brother. Paul was the one who had the happy girlfriend who was always smiling. Paul was the one who had been friends with this amazing girl, and then suddenly fallen in love. _Paul_ was the one who was about to propose to her right before _Hurley_ went to Sydney. Before Hurley went to Sydney to find out if he was cursed, of course. His grandmother was dead. It was probably good that the plane had crashed _before_ Paul had proposed. Hurley would have made something to happen to screw everything up.

He suddenly felt lonelier than he ever had in his life. He noticed that he was still the center of attention as everyone was silent, watching his forlorn figure. He sat up straighter and cleared his throat loudly.

"What about you, Sun? Why were you and…" Crap. What was his name again? "…Your husband going to LA?"

* * *

Sun was surprised to be acknowledged. After all this time on the island, when everything had changed, she was still surprised. Once she'd gotten here, she'd started to be treated nicer than she ever had before. Even when no one knew she could speak English, Michael had been kind to her… treated her like an equal, not something that can be ignored like Jin had as of late. Michael and then Kate found out about her secret, and she suddenly had friends again. The only real friend she could remember ever having was Jia Li, the one who had so kindly tried to help her get away from Jin. Oh, Jin. She had wanted so much for things to smooth out with him. She had tried so hard… why had things gone wrong? Before he found out about her speaking English, before the plane crashed, what had happened? Who did he kill that night, why? Sun felt a headache coming on. If she didn't think about it, maybe it would solve itself in time. She had told herself this a hundred times since Jin had stopped talking to her. She swallowed with difficulty the lump that had been growing in her throat.

"My husband and I were going to Los Angeles… on vacation." She told Hurley. "Jin had been working so hard, and I thought he needed a break. I told him we should go to America, and he agreed. We were going to go for a month or so, and stay with a friend of mine." Sun wondered to herself why she was lying. She hadn't meant to, the words just seemed to fly out of her mouth. Then she realized – she was ashamed. She was ashamed of her failed marriage, she blamed herself. No, she thought, it's not my fault. He's the one that hates me. He's the one that ignores me. He's the one… but she continued on.

"We planned the whole thing. We would explore the city in the day and then go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant at night. It would be like… a second honeymoon." She smiled softly, watching the fire. She wished so much that what she was saying was true, her heart ached.

"And now we're here." She looked around at them, then hung her head. "And he hates me." She murmured this so quietly that she wasn't sure anyone had heard. Kate did, and she put her arm around Sun's shoulder comfortingly. But Sun stood up. She crossed her arms across her chest protectively.

"I'm tired. I'll go to bed now."

"Goodnight, Sun." Kate said in a sad voice, then turned back to the fire. Sun tried not to cry noisy tears as she retreated into the darkness. She bit her lip, clenched her fists and stayed silent. That's what she had always done.


	2. Shannon, Boone and Jack

A/N Thanks for your reviews, keep 'em coming! To answer your question, yes, obviously I'm continuing. I'm looking for this fic to be four or five chapters.

* * *

The next night, there was a larger group sitting around the fire on the beach. A few people from the caves were there in addition to the normal crowd who slept on the beach. Last night, after Sun had left and late into the wee hours, the survivors had talked about their former lives. The spoke tearfully of those they loved who were killed in the crash, or were still at home, waiting for any evidence that flight 815 hadn't disappeared off the face of the earth. They spoke of the little things they missed, like oreos or their favorite television show. It was therapeutic for those who grieved, and comforting for all to know that others were going through just as much pain. For so long, the survivors hadn't talked, they were with strangers, they would be rescued soon and it wouldn't matter. Then they realized that they were no longer with strangers anymore. These people with different lives and personalities now were seen every day, now were friends and neighbors. But they didn't know each other. Now they talked about who they used to be, what they did, how they lived. Still, they didn't know… they all fell under the spell of secrecy. In the cover of darkness as the light of the flames licked their weary faces, they told romantic, exciting stories of the lives that were not theirs.

"So, you're her brother?" an older woman named Julia asked Boone, who sat next to Shannon on the sand.

"Step brother." Shannon and Boone said at the same time in the same bored tone that clearly said that this was not a new question.

"I lived in Los Angeles and she lived in Sydney." Boone informed Julia, turning to her slightly. "Her boyfriend left her and I came to bring her back." He said, semi-truthfully, thinking back on the day he bribed Shannon's new sleazy boyfriend to leave, offering… what, twenty-five thousand this time? He frowned a little. He glanced at Shannon, who was frowning much more than a little. Her cheeks burned an angry red with embarrassment.

"Actually," she began with cold fury in her voice, "I left him for another guy. Brandon wasn't my type. He was really uptight and overprotective. He didn't like when I went out without him. You know, with my friends? He would follow me to wherever we were going, a club or a restaurant or something. He was such a creep." She said, seeming to gain control of the situation. "I think he was just after me for my money." She added.

Boone smirked at her unkindly. "Not your type." He repeated softly.

"What the hell are you inferring?" Shannon growled, her fists clenching, leering at her step brother.

"Ooh, 'inferring', that's a two point vocab word." Boone taunted childishly; standing up and ready to leave but waiting to hear her retort. There wasn't one. Shannon just gave him and icy glare and turned her back to him. He spun around and walked briskly in the opposite direction of his fuming sister. He couldn't help but hear her continue with her lie. She seemed to speak loudly to make sure he heard what she said.

"I don't know why Boone came to Sydney. He just randomly showed up one day, whining at me to come home. I think he had this gross crush on me or something…"

What a bitch. Boone fumed at his step sister as he blocked his ears from hearing any more. How could she say that in front of everyone? What a selfish, idiot bitch. She made up that whole story about leaving her boyfriend, abut him being over protective – his name wasn't even Brandon, it was Cameron, or Kyle… but to say only one truthful thing and to have it be _that?_ No. He tried to calm himself down. Everyone on the island knew she was self-centered and dramatic. They wouldn't _really_ think that anything had happened between them. He took a deep breath and stopped walking. He tilted his head back and stared at the moon. It cast a faint light on the waves rolling onto the sand. It was almost full, showing its deep craters and eerie light to the world.

* * *

Jack was watching the moon as well, but he was still at the fire. He hadn't been listening to Shannon and Boone arguing, he hadn't been listening to any conversation that night. He had been too busy hearing the roaring in his ears. He had started seeing his dad again. Now the man who had been his father stood staring at him from behind the closest palm tree. Not speaking or moving, just watching like a cat about to pounce on a bird. The pasty man in his black suit watched Jack like he was waiting for something. Jack shivered although he was close to the fire and quite warm.

Kate sat beside him, and every so often, he caught her glancing concernedly at him, every so often opening her mouth to say something, but closing it again as if thinking better of it. She knew something was wrong. Jack averted his eyes from the man he knew wasn't there. Instead he looked around the circle of survivors. He studied each face as they studied Shannon's as she spoke of her undying love for her new boyfriend. They did not know he was watching him. _But he knew someone was watching him._ No. He shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. His father was dead. Hallucinations, probably caused by lack of sleep… like before, right? His mind flashed back to a child's doll in the water. A pile of bent metal that was once part of a plane. Suitcases. A coffin. An _empty _coffin. Stop thinking about it, he commanded himself.

"I was in Sydney on vacation." He blurted out to distract himself, interrupting Shannon, and causing everyone to turn and wonder why the calm doctor looked so nervous.

"My father – he was, I mean he is, a doctor too – he came with me. Whenever we could take a break from work, we would go somewhere. It was nice to be in an atmosphere that wasn't professional. My father secretly loved being an obnoxious tourist… the whole camera around the neck thing… Once we went to Europe, another time China. We'd only go for a week or so, but it was always interesting. We didn't always get along," he realized that this was the first truthful thing he had said. "But we'd patch it up in the end. Then we'd go home, back to work. Him back to my mom, me back to my messy apartment."

Kate shoved him. "No loving girlfriend waiting with bated breath for your return?"

"Well," Jack teased. "Not with bated breath." He looked back up at the palm trees. He was gone. He gave a shudder of relief.

Somehow he would stop this.

* * *

Next chapter, Charlie and Claire! Hurrah! 


End file.
